Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus on Saturday called for concerted efforts by the international community in the protection of world heritage.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 30th session of the World Heritage Committee, Adamkus said that "heritage means, among other things, close international cooperation".

UNESCO's World Heritage List includes sites that are local by their roots, national by their scope and universal by their value, he said, adding that they were of "outstanding global value and therefore we must make a concerted effort to protect them".

He cited famous anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss as saying that global culture implies universal interaction among cultures preserving their unique features.

Every continent, region and nation has its own tangible and intangible heritage, Adamkus said, but "all of them have different financial resources and capacities to safeguard such heritage".

"It is extremely difficult to preserve national heritage without assistance from the international community" in regions which have been ravaged by natural calamities or armed conflicts, he said.

Adamkus underlined the importance of various funds and foundations, numerous bilateral and multilateral projects.

Various international organizations should take concerted action and unite their knowledge and financial resources in order to implement the UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural heritage, he added.

He praised the would-be launch of the Africa World Heritage Fund this year as a major victory in this respect.

One of the agendas of the nine-day session is to release a report on setting up a special fund for African countries to preserve heritage.

Source: Xinhua